The hospital apologised to Richard Rice and his wife

Mr Farenden said: "It's difficult for us to understand how this happened.

"We have a system of intercoms and buzzers and the room where the baby was taken from is directly opposite a nurse station.

"The security system has failed and we have let this couple and baby down. That is why we must have a review."

Mr Farenden was pressed on the use of CCTV cameras and said: "It's right to say that the equipment was not working properly and will be replaced by the end of the week.

"But CCTV is not part of the access control system and wouldn't have been any use until after the baby had been taken."

The system linking the cameras to recording equipment was faulty, Mr Farenden said, meaning that nothing of any use to investigating officers was recorded.

Paul Farenden will fully review security

The hospital is due to introduce electronic tagging for babies before the end of this week.

In the meantime, a major review of what went wrong on Monday has already begun.

Mr Farenden said: "The trust is clearly disappointed at the loss of a baby in its care and we are undertaking a thorough review of practices, protocols and procedures.

"We already have a permanent added security presence involving more than one guard."

Balancing act

He also said that the hospital has apologised to the parents of the baby, Richard and Deanne Rice, for the failures in its system.

Yvonne O'Connor, head of midwifery at Wordsley, told reporters that added security could mean inconvenience for new mothers and their families.

"What we are looking at here is a maternity unit and not a prison.

We have to balance security with what families actually require and visiting may not be as free as it is now."